Welcome
Hein Boon, director of RHP, opened the meeting. The three following external speakers each talked about fungus problems in substrates from their own perspective.
24 january 2017
No less than 100 guests came to the conference hotel Kontakt der Kontinenten in Soesterberg for the RHP anniversary event ‘less chemistry, more biology’ on January 18. The meeting was all about the recent developments in fungus related problems, sharing knowledge and networking.
Hein Boon, director of RHP, opened the meeting. The three following external speakers each talked about fungus problems in substrates from their own perspective.
Koen Druijf, of Waterdrinker, approached the subject with retail in mind. He asked the audience to make an estimation of the requirements that retail is going to set to sustainability and actively start working with it as companies together. Professor Han Wösten of Utrecht University approached the fungus problems from the scientific point of view. He described the colonisation of saprotrophic fungi in substrates and possible solution directions to avoid it. Roger Boer of Koppert Biological Systems gave his vision on the subject from a practical point of view. He thinks it’s time for a change: growing media with microbial resilience and asked the audience to take on the challenge. Moderator Gijs Kok of Royal FloraHolland led the discussion and interaction with the audience.
Kok concluded the discussion about fungus related problems with: “There is a collective problem in the sector. A problem that’s expected to grow bigger and bigger. There already are a couple of solution directions and knowledge is starting to develop, this problem needs a collective approach. A problem to solve together as companies in the substrate sector.”
Next the new RHP website was launched by Barbara Zeelenberg, communication advisor at RHP. She invited participants to quickly take a look at the new website, and especially the new tools, like the Knowledge Base and Weed Hunter. At the end Hans Verhagen, head Research, was put in the spotlight because it’s been 25 years since he started working at RHP. Afterwards a lot of networking took place during the walking dinner.
